Editor’s Note: This is a public Student Union document which has been reproduced to increase the document’s accessibility for the student body and to ensure the availability of a public record in service of the Danforth Dispatch’s goal of facilitating improvements to the community.
Resolution Advocating For The Implementation Of A Practical Credit Academic System: Career Center
Introduced by Chair of Academic Affairs David Mathisson and Cosponsoring Senators Ethan Glazer, Pat Wang, Hussein Amuri, Saketh Bhupathiraju, and Jojo Spio
WHEREAS, Our disproportionately intense academic programs, taken by themselves, do not appear to have given Washington University students a competitive advantage over students from peer institutions when applying for jobs, in part because employers prefer relevant experience — such as internships — over solely in-class participation, and
WHEREAS, the Washington University Career Center categorically excludes local and on-campus opportunities, instead presenting students with time-intensive “do-it-yourself” advice on securing opportunities, and
WHEREAS, online job postings, the main form of internship support provided by the Career Center, are inexclusive to WashU, and can be hypercompetitive, often drawing in hundreds of applications for one spot, and
WHEREAS, the Career Center ignores high-quality local opportunities students would benefit from, such as internships with local community partners, undergraduate teaching assistantships, undergraduate research opportunities, and opportunities within student organizations, and
WHEREAS, the Practical Credit System, in the attached Proposal, is an innovative solution to modernize our academic system which will give our students a competitive advantage over those at our peer institutions, and
WHEREAS, a full implementation of this solution could propel Washington University into becoming, by ranking, one of the top 10 universities in the nation, therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Career Center should implement the following solutions excerpted from the Practical Credit Proposal, and further be it
RESOLVED, that should the main component of the Practical Credit Resolution pass, the Career Center shall play a vital role in connecting students to Practical Credit-eligible opportunities.
Solution: Career Center Reorientation
- The Career Center should focus on sharing opportunities on campus and local opportunities with students– helping them find student organizations they fit into and connecting them to opportunities on campus which will help them secure competitive internships later on
- This means focusing on TAing, Research Assistantships, internships accessible from WashU’s campus, and student group participation among groups that facilitate employer-valued experiences
- The Career Center should collaborate with academic departments to help students find the right opportunities for them
- The Career Center should transparently inform underclassmen that A) they are at a significant disadvantage to upperclassmen regardless of merit, and that B) most freshmen will get categorically auto-rejected unless they have a connection
- The Career Center should provide clear, transparent information about the level of competitiveness of highly competitive opportunities which are already publicly posted, and, while continuing to inform interested students of where these opportunities can be found, prioritize opportunities outside of St. Louis where a WashU alum, family member, or faculty member can influence hiring decisions.
- While we can, and should, encourage students other than freshmen (who get auto-rejected without connections) to pursue the most ambitious opportunities students wish to pursue, the Career Center should emphasize viability and mobilize its resources to provide more significant support to students throughout the process